CATOPEN Section: C Library Functions (3) Updated: 30 November 2025 Index   NAME catopen, catclose - open/close a message catalog   SYNOPSIS #include <features.h> #include <nl_types.h> nl_catd catopen(name, flag) char *name; int flag; void catclose(catalog) nl_catd catalog;   DESCRIPTION catopen() opens a message catalog and returns a catalog descriptor. name specifies the name of the message catalog to be opened. If name specifies and absolute path, (i.e. contains a `/') then name specifies a pathname for the message catalog. Otherwise, the environment variable NLSPATH is used with name substituted for %N (see If NLSPATH does not exist in the environment, or if a message catalog cannot be opened in any of the paths specified by NLSPATH, then the following paths are searched in order /etc/locale/LC_MESSAGES /usr/lib/locale/LC_MESSAGES /usr/lib/locale/name/LC_MESSAGES In all cases LC_MESSAGES stands for the current setting of the LC_MESSAGES category of locale from a previous call to setlocale() and defaults to the "C" locale. In the last search path name refers to the catalog name. The flag argument to catopen is used to indicate the type of loading desired. This should be either MCLoadBySet or MCLoadAll. The former value indicates that only the required set from the catalog is loaded into memory when needed, whereas the latter causes the initial call to catopen() to load the entire catalog into memory. catclose() closes the message catalog identified by catalog. It invalidates any subsequent references to the message catalog defined by catalog.   RETURN VALUES catopen() returns a message catalog descriptor of type nl_catd on success. On failure, it returns -1. catclose() returns 0 on success, or -1 on failure.   NOTES These functions are only available in libc.so.4.4.4c and above. In the case of linux, the catalog descriptor nl_catd is actually a mmap()'ed area of memory and not a file descriptor, thus allowing catalogs to be shared.   SEE ALSO   Index NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION RETURN VALUES NOTES SEE ALSO This document was created by using the manual pages. Time: 11:58:02 GMT, March 24, 2025